Mojave phone booth facts for kids
| No. issued | +1 (760) 733-9969 |
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| Mojave phone booth | |
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The phone booth being used in December 1999, before its eventual removal
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| General information | |
| Status | Removed May 17, 2000 |
| Type | Phone booth |
| Location | Mojave National Preserve, San Bernardino County, California |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 35°17′09″N 115°41′05″W / 35.285827°N 115.68463°W |
| Inaugurated | 1960s |
| Owner | Pacific Bell |
The Mojave phone booth was a single telephone booth located in a very remote area. This spot is now part of the Mojave National Preserve in California. It became famous online in 1997 because of its unusual location. The phone booth sat at the crossing of two dirt roads deep in the Mojave Desert. It was about 12 miles (19 km) from the closest paved road and far from any buildings.
Contents
History of the Phone Booth
The phone booth was first put in place around 1948. It helped local miners and other people living in the area to make calls. A man named Emerson Ray, who owned a nearby mine, asked for the phone service. It was called the Cinder Peak Policy Station. This was part of a plan by the California government to provide phone service to people in isolated places.
The original phone used a hand-crank to make calls. This was replaced with a payphone in the 1960s. Later, in the 1970s, a push-button phone took the place of the old rotary dial phone. The phone number changed over the years as new area codes were created. Its final area code was 760.
In 1997, a man from Los Angeles saw a phone icon on a map of the Mojave Desert. He decided to visit the phone booth. He wrote about his adventure in a small magazine and shared the phone number. Another man, Godfrey Daniels, read the story and created a website about the Mojave phone booth.
The phone booth quickly became very popular on the Internet. A New York Times article even mentioned it. Soon, many people started calling the booth. Others made their own websites about it. Some people even traveled to the desert to answer the phone, sometimes camping there. Visitors often left graffiti on the booth.
Why the Phone Booth Was Removed
The phone booth was taken away by Pacific Bell on May 17, 2000. This happened because the National Park Service asked for its removal. The park service was worried about the impact visitors were having on the natural environment. After it was removed, the phone number was no longer used.
A special plaque was later placed at the site to remember the phone booth. However, the National Park Service eventually removed this plaque too. Fans of the booth were sad to learn that Pacific Bell had destroyed the actual phone booth.
The story of the Mojave phone booth inspired several creative works. These include a short film called Dead Line and a documentary called Mojave Mirage. There was also a full-length movie titled Mojave Phone Booth. The booth also inspired a part of the book The Overton Window. A podcast called "99% Invisible" also featured its story. In 2018, a book called Adventures with the Mojave Phone Booth was published. It tells the full story of the booth.
The Phone Number Lives On
Years after the phone booth was removed, its old number, 760-733-9969, found a new life. In 2013, a phone enthusiast named Lucky225 got the number. He and Teli Tuketu set up a special online conference. People could call the old number using voice over IP (a way to make calls over the internet). Callers would join a group chat where strangers could talk to each other. It was a way for people to connect again, just like when the actual phone booth was still in the desert.
See also
